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Islam & Sufism

Articles & Newsletters

In Perfect Joy, In Timeless Bliss

Some time ago, I was asked to give my first public talk on Muharram to a crowd of British Muslims. I prayed for inspiration, and that night had a wonderful dream. There was a fine black tent, stretching towards the horizon. I was taken inside and saw the Prophet (pbuh) and his family scattered in different parts of the tent. Imam Ali beckoned to me and said, ‘You wanted to talk to my sons, and here they are.’ Both Imam Hassan and Imam Hussein appeared, as young men, cheerfully exchanging pleasantries. I cautiously approached Imam Hussein and asked, ‘Do I have your permission to talk about your martyrdom?’ ‘Of course you can’, he replied, ‘but only if you depict me as you see me now; in perfect joy, in timeless bliss – not in any other way.’

Allah’s protection and care is forever covering us. It is only we who go to the past and resurrect the dead. That is why the true mu’min regrets at the time, asks Allah’s forgiveness and moves on. We don’t constantly go and visit the scene of the crime. Expect the best of Allah and remember that one of His qualities as it is described in the Qur’an is al-‘Afuw. It is from the word ‘afā. It means effacing, obliterating, or wiping out, and hence, to pardon. From the same root ‘afuw comes ‘āfiyah, meaning wellbeing. The past doesn’t exist anymore because time, in reality, doesn’t exist. It is only as part of His ‘catchment’, so that we are in time and space yearning for non-time and non-space.

Everything is divine. If we view everything with the vision of divinity within us, if we look through the eye of the Creator within us, we find that everything is perfect, and if we do not do this, then everything appears unjust.

The objective is to be in awareness. You must simply be aware of what you do when you are doing it, not afterwards! There is nothing wrong in wanting to reproduce what you like and avoid what you dislike. This is the way we are. What matters is the spontaneous awareness of what is happening. All human beings have the same essence and the same consciousness, because we are basically sentient through life and life is one. The only difference between beings is the degree of awareness.